Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!mcnc!ecsvax!ruslan
From: ruslan@ecsvax.uncecs.edu (Robin C. LaPasha)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Discovery's launch: Am I imagining things?
Summary: the 3 pm conference 9/29 (Eastern time)
Message-ID: <5488@ecsvax.uncecs.edu>
Date: 1 Oct 88 00:35:42 GMT
References: <1104@cfa237.cfa250.harvard.edu> <15722@ames.arc.nasa.gov>
Organization: UNC Educational Computing Service
Lines: 73

In article <15722@ames.arc.nasa.gov>, chguest@pioneer.arc.nasa.gov.arpa (Charles Guest  RCE) writes:
> In article <1104@cfa237.cfa250.harvard.edu> mcdowell@cfa250.harvard.edu (Jonathan McDowell) writes:
> >
> >HOORAY! Discovery's in orbit at last. Phew.
> >
> >BUT....  At about 80 to 90 seconds into the flight, I and several
> >friends independently thought we saw flame coming out of the right hand
> >(no, right on the TV screen, so I guess that must mean its really the
> >"left hand") SRB at the case-to-nozzle joint (where the cylindrical
> >booster starts to flare toward the bottom). Did anyone else see this?
> >The commentators didnt mention it. I hope I'm wrong.
> >
> >
> >Jonathan McDowell
> 
> Unless it was a nationwide hallucination you did in fact see what you
> think you saw. I noticedit too.
> 
> I was listening to a prss confrence on NASA select at about 1400 pdt
> this afternoon and a member of the press asked this exact question.
> The moderator poo pooed the ideaand said that he hd not seen it.
> 
It may be that the government wanted to present this as a flawless flight
> so they will wait until they are certain what exactle happened before
> they release any data.
> 
> 
> ************************************************************
> *      OVERAL AND ALL INCLUSIVE DISCLAIMER:                * 

[etc., of Charles Guest]

I also saw that NASA Select press conference.  The question was
phrased rather specifically, in fact - not a "did you see any
flame out of the SRBs" but something like:
	I was at XXX space center with a group of technicians
and managers, including at least one astronaut...I saw them
literally gasp when they saw that flame licking out the side...
And they moaned... What's up? [rough equivalent, from memory]

The moderator/spokesman guy did "poo poo" the idea, and didn't
seem to be terribly informative on some other questions by the
group either.

The following by Bob Roberds and (somebody else!) is also disconcerting:

>It may well be that we are all misinterpreting what we saw.  Perhaps it was
>some minor and/or entirely normal event.  All may be well, but I think that
>there is at least a moderate probability that, after looking at the many
>available camera angles and inspecting the recovered SRB's, NASA will
>announce that this morning's launch only narrowly escaped disaster.
>If there was another O-ring burn through, it will surely AT LEAST mean
>another major delay in the shuttle program.

Tonite on the news I heard that NASA had found no evidence of a burn-through
fire on the recovered SRBs.  Let us frigging hope they're right.
Geez, how could you have burn-through with the new flange and three-ring
system?  If it happened, we can all look foward to another two and a half
years of frustration and (hopefully) the death sentence for the managers
at Morton Thiokol.

[end of quote]

It seems that NASA was _very_ quick about that check.  Does anybody
(watching NASA Select more faithfully than I have been) know if this
is being followed up in subsequent news conferences?  Like, is
there any real information being presented?  If it's normal, have
they analyzed where it's coming from, etc.?  Anybody doing checks
against old shuttle tapes to see if it's a spurt of flame in the
same place(s)?

Robin LaPasha
ruslan@ecsvax.uncecs.edu